Fake job listings to get users?
I'm a first-time poster but long-time start-up fan.
Recently I started looking for some work to help me through college. I found a job on my school internship page and applied, but a few things made me suspicious.
First, the job was for a "content selector", who must find good content and "push it through" to the site. But on this site, that is exactly what the users are supposed to do. Why hire someone to do the users job?
Second, they ask the applicant to sign up on the site and post a certain number of items, then include their username as proof. I have never seen that as a requirement before.
When I applied, I mentioned I found a large bug. But their response to my application was very canned-sounding and they did not ask about the bug. Instead, they asked me to give feedback on the invite-a-friend feature.
I responded that I would give my feedback during the interview instead. After sending a follow up a few days later, I still haven't heard a non-cut-and-paste response.
I noticed that the job is not posted on my city's de-facto job boards. It's only on my college internship page and their Twitter, from what I see.
Also, it's "to be done remotely", and I see a few users on the site who have about the same amount of activity as I do, from different areas.
Does this sound like a ploy to get users to anyone else? Is there a way it could be proven, if it is? Is this illegal? Is this common in startups? Who can I report this to?
Thanks a for reading.